The Graceful Ukulele

I awoke one morning with a new and crazy ambition. All night long I had been sitting on the beach strumming a ukulele, singing in my dreams. I was so happy; the warm breeze in my hair, white sand beneath my toes...oh yeah, and I was good! So began my journey to master the Hawaiian Ukulele.

Now, this did seem impulsive...especially since we're backpacking and on a strict budget. We gave it three days and 30 uke songs before caving and visiting the Byron music store. We tried several varieties and settled on a small concert uke. It sounds great when played solo, which is just what we have planned for that little instrument. In fact, it will soon be accompanying us on a road trip with my dad where I'm envisioning camp fires and cold beer with a friendly ukulele and the ocean for backup.

A petite sand crab!

I've always wanted to learn the guitar but, much to my mother's dismay, I never acquired the patience or dedication to practice and learn to play songs other than Nirvana's Plateau (actually, I suppose it's the Meat Puppets, I just preferred Cobain).
Chris and I dove into YouTube, finding loads of "how to" videos and started playing. After attempting Johnny Cash proved too challenging for a first song, Chris moved on to Brown Eyed Girl. I settled on the Moldy Peaches, Anyone Else But You. Two gloriously easy chords and five minutes later I was a uke player! Long way to go before I allow myself the title of "master" but I'm on my way. The hardest part is singing and playing the ukulele at the same time. In case anyone else is interested, we found two amazing websites that are extrememly helpful: Uke Hunt (good for selecting an instrument and has a nice beginner's guide you can download as a PDF), and Ukulele Underground (great instructional videos, love Aldrine!). It turns out, I've forgotten how to play Plateau, sorry Mom!

There's a great video of Chris playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow on our favorite Beach, The Wreck. I have to spend some time editing it because he's worried about looking bad :D  Hope to upload later today so you can all see where we spend all our time.